During the Spring Update event, OpenAI unveiled its newest flagship model, GPT-4o (‘Omni’), which will be accessible to all users, both free and paid ChatGPT subscribers. At last, free users can enjoy GPT-4 class intelligence at no cost. Additionally, all tools and premium features of ChatGPT Plus are now available to free users.
Some of the features now accessible to free users include internet browsing on ChatGPT, image uploads with vision capabilities of GPT-4o, file and document analysis, chart creation and Advanced Data Analysis (formerly known as Code Interpreter), the Memory feature, and access to GPTs and the GPT Store.
In essence, OpenAI is extending all paid features to the free version of ChatGPT. The company has announced that the new model will be gradually released to all users in the coming weeks. It’s important to note that free users have a message limit; reaching this limit will automatically switch them to the GPT-3.5 model.
GPT-4o is Truly Multimodal
GPT-4o is fundamentally multimodal. Previously, OpenAI utilized different models for various modalities, which led to increased latency and a subpar user experience. For voice chat, it employed Whisper for voice processing; GPT-4V for vision, and GPT-4 for text processing and reasoning.
The GPT-4o model, however, is capable of processing text, audio, and vision simultaneously, allowing for intelligent reasoning. Demonstrations on stage were so impressive they seemed like a scene from the movie ‘Her.’ A robust internet connection is required for the optimal experience.
The GPT-4o model can see things in real-time and express feelings in a natural way along with a variety of tones. The conversation now feels less robotic and more spontaneous. You can also start speaking to interrupt it and continue your conversation.
In addition to that, the GPT-4o model understands the emotions behind your voice as well. For example, if you are feeling anxious and breathing rapidly, it tells you to calm down. It can also translate languages in real-time. OpenAI says the new GPT-4o model supports 50 languages.
ChatGPT Gets a Desktop App for macOS
Finally, ChatGPT gets a desktop app for macOS. And you can voice chat with ChatGPT on your Mac as well. OpenAI has added vision capability to its macOS app which is truly remarkable. You can turn on vision and it can see your screen. If you are coding and want ChatGPT to take a look at your code, it can see and reason with it. That’s pretty excellent. I am not sure if a similar ChatGPT app is coming to Windows.
As for developers, the new GPT-4o model will be available on the API. It is 50% cheaper, offers 2x performance, and provides a 5x higher rate limit than GPT-4 Turbo.
Now that OpenAI has brought all of the paid features to free users, you might be wondering what is left for ChatGPT Plus users. Well, OpenAI says paid users will have 5x the capacity of free users. In addition, OpenAI will be releasing the next “frontier” model pretty soon, announced Mira Murati at the end of the event. So, paid users will definitely have access to the “next big thing” pretty soon.
